GOSPEL OF THE DAY

From the Gospel according to John 8:21-30

Jesus said to the Pharisees:

“I am going away and you will look for me,

but you will die in your sin.

Where I am going you cannot come.”

So the Jews said,

“He is not going to kill himself, is he,

because he said, ‘Where I am going you cannot come’?”

He said to them, “You belong to what is below,

I belong to what is above.

You belong to this world,

but I do not belong to this world.

That is why I told you that you will die in your sins.

For if you do not believe that I AM,

you will die in your sins.”

So they said to him, “Who are you?”

Jesus said to them, “What I told you from the beginning.

I have much to say about you in condemnation.

But the one who sent me is true,

and what I heard from him I tell the world.”

They did not realize that he was speaking to them of the Father.

So Jesus said to them,

“When you lift up the Son of Man,

then you will realize that I AM,

and that I do nothing on my own,

but I say only what the Father taught me.

The one who sent me is with me.

He has not left me alone,

because I always do what is pleasing to him.”

Because he spoke this way, many came to believe in him.

The word of the Lord

 

Do you want your husband/wife to be converted?

“When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that ‘I am’.”

The Lord tells us that it will be when He is lifted up on the cross that His identity will be revealed. On the cross.

Where do we believe that we reveal Jesus Christ?

When we speak about Him to others?

When we tell our husband what he ought to do in order to get things right?

When we help on a retreat or give catechesis?

But He points us to the cross. To love on the cross.

Nothing will reveal Jesus Christ in us more than loving in difficulty. Not even miracles, nor the most impressive preaching.

Do you want your husband or wife to be converted and believe?

Love him on the cross — love him when he doesn’t realise you need him, love him when he forgets to do what you asked, love him when he speaks to you harshly, love him…

Let yourself be lifted up with Christ on the cross, being a light of love in the midst of darkness. Only by continuing to love to the very end, united to Jesus, will His Heart and His divinity shine through you. And then, with God’s help, you will have prepared the way so that, seeing divine love in you, he may believe.

 

Applied to married life:

Elizabeth: Paul and kids, dinner’s ready!

Paul: I’m coming, Elizabeth…

Elizabeth: Come on, kids, set the table and do your little jobs.

Elizabeth thinks: It’s already nine o’clock and the children and I have been waiting for him for half an hour… Paul, come on, dinner’s ready!

Paul: Again? I said I’m coming… I’ve got loads of work, can’t you see? You’re so impatient!

Elizabeth: This is the moment when I need to keep calm, and understand that he’s stressed and tired from the demands of his job. Holy Spirit, help me, because on my own I can’t…Whenever you’re ready, love.

Paul: I heard you the first time…

Elizabeth: How hard this is for me… but this is the moment to understand him and love him.

Love, I made the meat with the sauce you like so much.

Paul thinks: After waiting for me, and after I snapped at her, she still greets me with a smile… It’s clear something has changed since they showed us the truth about the Cross in our lives. Elizabeth, thank you for your patience and for putting up with my bad mood.

Elizabeth: Paul, I love being faithful to what I told you on our wedding day: I take you and I give myself to you in prosperity and adversity, in health and in sickness…

Paul: How wonderful to live out what they taught us about embracing the Cross, just as you do.

Mother,

Thank you for giving us your Son, who gave Himself to the very end. Blessed be the Lord!